Submitted 8 hours ago by capybeby@sh.itjust.works to [deleted]
https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/7282a770-53b7-4199-8115-358a560c2903.webp
Unless the library is tracking book reader stats or you actually check out the book, maybe remember how the classification system works like they were supposed to teach you in school?
Half the time I’m literally standing in front of the shelf perusing the book, it would be dumb to throw it in the book return unless I don’t know or can’t find the exact position where it came from.
Idk. I think it’s just easier to rely on a specific someone whose job it is to put shit in the proper place than to hope every random person who takes a book off the shelf can put it back in the proper place. Like, I get what you’re saying. It isn’t a big ask to have people return a book after looking at it. But it’s so easy for them to put it in the wrong spot. And once it’s on the shelf, it’s much harder to notice that it’s out of place. It seems counter intuitive, but it’s more efficient to simply leave the book out after looking at it
The librarian at my grad school had a book cart in her house and would not let her husband put a book anywhere but on that cart once he was finished with it. Power move.
Why’s that? Is it just in case you put it in the wrong spot?
Primarily, yes. But also most libraries run a book through the check-in system when they pick it up. This marks in the system when and where the last time a book was touched was, which can be useful if it were to go missing. But mostly it’s so it doesn’t go in the wrong spot.
Who is running check on on the return cart? Who has time for that?
These a check in box in the back room. If it isn’t in there, and it has a label then It’s assumed to be part of the connection.
This is wholesome.
I suspect that depends.
At least at finnish HelMet libraries, you can just walk in and take any book out of any shelf, and sit down to read it. Once you’re done, you put it back in the exact same spot.
If you don’t remember where that was, then you can hand it to a librarian to re-shelve. They will check the inventory to see where it should go.
You can actually also do that yourself, since the same system is available for finding any given book currently in the library, but it works just as well for putting something back.
All of the above is allowed without signing up for a library card.
If you want to bring a book home, that’s when you go to the checkout, scan your library card, and the barcode on the book. This removes it from current inventory and logs you as the current borrower.
When you bring it back, you scan the book again and leave it on the shelf by the returns scanner. Because the book was removed from the inventory, it wont have a place on a shelf yet.
This system also allows you return books to a different library from where you borrowed them. Since the HelMet libraries in the capital city region all interoperate, they share collections, and the location and lending of every individual item is tracked across them all. Across four cities and 66 libraries, and even a couple library buses that visit schools and more remote spots on a schedule.
You can even browse the inventory online. See where copies of what are available, what’s available but currently lent out, request something be moved to a library close to you so you can read it, or reserve a spot in line to borrow something popular.
Kinda just gushing about our libraries. If they don’t have something, HelMet does intralibrary lending. They will get a certain book or item for you from another library network entirely (even from abroad), lend it out to you, and once you’re done, return it back to the providing network.
They do their darndest to make physical made is as accessible as the internet, and it’s freaking free.
That’s how it should work everywhere.
That’s all exactly the same here in the US, except I’ve yet to come across a library that let patrons operate the scanner.
Damn. Over here we have self-service hours.
Library card holders that sign up for it can get into a library building using their library card, outside normal opening hours, when the staff isn’t even there.
No, we definitely have them, even as far back as when I was a teen. But like most things, it varies…
Our little local library uses RFID chips in the books. It is all self checkout, you just place it on the scanner and done.
Op provides the other reason that libraries may not want you to read a book and return it (other than putting it in the wrong place, which occurs). Libraries may be collecting data on usage.
I assumed the OP is about returning books you’ve checked out. If you just put them back on the shelf, the system will still think they are checked out since they never got checked in.
This is essentially the same as in the US. But one question
When you bring it back, you scan the book again and leave it on the shelf by the returns scanner. Because the book was removed from the inventory, it wont have a place on a shelf yet.
Do you not have a classification system that determines where a book should reside? US libraries (and others, I presume) use the Dewey Decimal System, which groups books into categories and such, and then finally alphabetically by author. So every book would have a general place to go, and then the specific place would be determined by the author’s last name.
Sure.
Items are grouped by type (games, video, music, tools, devices, fact, fiction, for adults, for kids, comics, audiobooks) etc. Each library may subdivide things in slightly different ways, due to the fact that they vary massively in size. I think some do use DDC for some subset of their inventory. But HelMet has a lot of media and items that do no fit into the DDC system.
You can certainly find something based on how things are sorted, and if you know its there.
But since the collection is region-wide, you don’t necessarily know that. Step one to finding a copy of something is to look up what libraries currently have any. When you look that up, the shelf location is right there as well.
Many locations simply number their shelves, and then further subdivide them by a point value, and then sort alphabetically.
A Harry Potter book for example, could be on shelf 86, section 11063, by “HAR”.
Each entire shelf is usually in alphabetical order overall, too, but the numbers make it really easy to zero in on exactly where a given item can be found.
i work at a library. please put the books in the spot labeled book return. it may not seem like it but because there are so few people working there just a few people in the library can keep us so busy we will miss the books you put down. also, check if your library has an ebook/audiobook thing like Libby. the wait times can be long but it's still pretty cool if you're into those.
Out of curiosity do you have a routine to periodically (annually, quarterly, I don’t know) to re-arrange books put back in the wrong place?
Warehouse ops manager here, we call our process scheduled counts & invoice counts.
We have about 25,000 locations for parts. We count a few sections each day for our scheduled counts, and we count the entire place 3 times a year by doing it.
That helps us find and address things that may be misplaced lost or just wrong but that haven’t been an issue for about 4 months.
Alternately we have a process that we used to count every location we picked parts from the day before.
The combination, when done correctly and not just fucking the dog, definately keeps you good.
I’m sad we no longer do the daily counts as it makes bigger problems than being able to check on incorrect orders within a day or 2 and not months later when no body can remember anything.
I might actually like working in a library now that I think about it
This isn’t a thing. Stop making things up. You’ll ruin this thread.
Are you a librarian? What kind of library do you work in? I think academic and public libraries probably operate slightly differently.
As a public librarian. I prefer you put it on the cart if you don’t know how to put it back. I am a lot faster than you are at putting it back so let me. But that goes everywhere there is shelving.
There’s no other special reason why.
On occasion I like to identify as a historian.
i can’t, it makes me feel so guilty whenever I make someone else when😭😭
ZkhqrD5o@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
Nah, libraries are theft. When you borrow a book from a library and you read it, then you have stolen a book from the publisher. Then you give it back and the next person comes along and reads the same book, stealing even more from the publisher.
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interdimensional_sharts@lemmy.world 52 minutes ago
Yup. Tbh, memory in general is theft. You should not be able to have the memory of the book you read unless you keep paying for it. Really should be introducing subscription models for memories of experiences, like reading. Otherwise it’s lobotomy for you.
runner_g@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 hours ago
Your meme has inspired me to renew my library card.
frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 hours ago
We should all aspire to be the Oceans 11 heist of having a library card.
Siethron@lemmy.world 3 hours ago
You wouldn’t download a
carbookbaggins@lemmy.ca 6 hours ago
Waow based